Back in my bad-girl motorcycle days at UCLA, my friends and I would ride our bikes along the famous and curvy Sunset Boulevard that bordered the northern end of school. Our destination was a Thai restaurant that I don’t recall the name of. On a motorcycle at night, the ride exhilarating on Sunset Boulevard, zipping between fancy cars with famous people (who drive too fast) and gawking tourists (who drive too slow).

Flaming hot curry, “barbecue” chicken and Thai iced coffee were our must-orders. The meal was cheap. The restaurant opened until 2am and the coffee kept me awake and alert doing all-nighters, which happened quite often.

What makes this iced coffee so different from anything you’ve had before is the infusion of cardamom into the half and half. Cardamom gives the coffee a warm-spice flavor. You can use either green or black cardamom (the black cardamom is cheaper), or in a pinch, ground cardamom.

Thai Iced Coffee Recipe

Servings: serves 4Prep Time:5Cook Time:15

When making Thai Iced Coffee, I brew very strong coffee by doubling the amount of coffee grounds than I normally use. This makes sure that the iced coffee is perfectly balanced and not diluted. If you can't find whole cardamom pods, substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom. Big thanks to Adam and Joanne for helping me with this recipe!

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. The first step is to smash the cardamom pods to release its flavor and aroma. You can do this with your mortar & pestle - just gently tap the pods until the outer shell is cracked. If you don't have a mortar & pestle, place the pods on a cutting board and with a heavy chef's knife, use the bottom of the handle to smash the pod.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring half-and-half or cream, sugar and cardamom pods to a simmer, turn off the heat and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
Remove the cardamom pods then add the almond extract.

3. Fill 4 tall glasses to the brim with ice. Divide the flavored half-and-half or cream between each of the 4 glasses. Then slowly pour the coffee into each glass.

I decided last month that our family should make a better effort to eat more seafood and less crap like deep fried nuggets of chicken fat. Not that I wasn’t trying to be healthy or anything, because that would be called a D-I-E-T, which is against my religion, culture, gender and overall cellular structure.

Looking for inspiration, I browsed someofmyfavoritefoodblogs and drooled over a dish that took a humble comfort food and paired it with lobster. So, my kids and I headed off to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for the dish.

The rugrats had fun poking at the lazy crustaceans in the tank, trying to guess which one the seafood monger would clumsily capture with his primitive wooden rake. A feisty three pounder was stuffed a plastic bag, weighed, priced and dropped in our cart. Off we went to pay, stopping briefly to pick up a hunk of nice cheese and a box of pasta.

Now, I have nothing against the teenage workforce manning the check-out line, but I feel very strongly that I simply must write these 3 letters.

Dear Ritalin:
When a customer gently places a bag of squirming lobster onto the conveyor belt, the appropriate response is not, “Oh shit, dude. You really gonna kill it and eat it?” Because a smart customer (for example, myself) will shoot right back with, “Why yes, pimple-ass, that is the plan. I might even torture it first with long, sharp objects before dunking it head-first in a vat of boiling hot water. Wanna watch?”Dear Pep Squad Reject:
When that same bag is handed to you to place back into the cart, the itty-bitty buggy-boo with rubber bands on its claws really isn’t a ferocious, drooling elephant man who wants to tie you up and lick your toes. Please don’t scream. You’re scaring my kids. You’re even scaring the freakin’ lobster.

Dear Parents:
I implore you to introduce the world of live seafood to your children at an early age. Teach them where our food comes from and how to properly handle and cook it. If you’re vegetarian, maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for your kids to work at supermarkets where they might just come in contact with raw animal carcasses and squealing lobsters. Maybe a job at the mushroom petting zoo would be more appropriate.

Lobster Mac & Cheese Recipe

Servings: Serves 4 (main dish) or 8 (side dish)Prep Time:Cook Time:

Notes on the lobster. You can buy uncooked lobster tails at the market and just remove the meat from the shell. Or, if you are buying a whole lobster, I've found it easier to steam or boil it for 1 minute exactly, drain and then remove the meat. The 1 minute steam firms and shrinks the meat just enough to make an easy job of cracking and removing the prized meat. But of course, if you are welcome to skip this steaming part.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Boil pasta in a large pot of salted water until 1 minute shy of done. Drain well.

2. In meantime, with medium saucepan on medium-low heat, melt butter and add flour a little at a time, whisking constantly for 3 minutes to make a roux. Add half and half, a little at time, whisking to combine. Cook 3 minutes until sauce has thickened. Turn off heat. Add cheddar and gruyere, salt, nutmeg, cayenne and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add cooked pasta to pan, stir to combine.

3. Butter 8 small ramekins or a large baking dish. Spoon pasta/cheese mixture into dish, up to 2/3 full. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.

5. When pasta is done baking, remove from oven. Top pasta with a spoonful of lobster mixture. Set your oven rack to top 1/3 of oven, turn to broil and return ramekins to oven for 6-8 minutes. Lobster should be cooked through and a nice cheeesy crunchy crust will form.

Winners from the Saffron Giveaway

Nathan got bored after just one. Had to enlist his brother to pick the 2nd winner: Marius

Bribed Nathan with chocolate to come back to finish his job. See his chocolaty mouth?

and Rudi won!

Congratulations to the winners! Email me your full name, address and phone number. Saffron.com will be shipping you your prize of an entire ounce of saffron directly to you! Promise me that you’ll share some of your prize with family and good friends, ok? Good kharma.

If you didn’t win, consider purchasing your saffron from this company. An entire ounce will last you over a year! And that is if you cook a saffron dish each week!